Hi Betty

I was faced with a similar problem a couple of years ago when working as a
professional developer, advising academics on pedagogical matters relating to
online teaching and learning in higher education. One of the lecturers from our
Engineering area wanted advice on developing JAVA applets demonstrating
satellite communications systems to students undertaking his courses. While he
was sympathetic to the needs of students with disabilities, he felt it most
unlikely that a student with a visual or hearing impairment would ever take his
courses because they would be unable to work in that field. Furthermore, he
could not comprehend how JAVA applets containing detailed diagrams, animations
and annotations could be made accessible even if he chose this option. We
worked together on a series of long descriptions for each applet, explaining in
detail what was happening on the screen, which students could access via a
hyperlink within the caption of the applet to a text file. When the lecturer
trialled this applet with his students he was delighted with the outcome -
students who were not disabled commented on how much easier it was for them to
understand the diagrams and animations when they were able to read more
detailed descriptions of the components and animations. Obviously some diagrams
will be hard to comprehend with text descriptions alone, but it is a start.

With regard to the comment that there are some activities that are not feasible
for people with disabilities, I remember having a conversation about this topic
with Bruce Maguire (who was the plaintiff in the Sydney Olympics case in 2000).
The particular scenario being discussed was why would a programmer need to make
a simulation about crane driving accessible to the visually impaired given they
could never realistically operate a crane or any other heavy machinery. Bruce
(who is himself blind) replied that just because a person is blind does not
mean they should not be allowed to learn about crane driving if they have an
interested in such things. The same would surely apply to driving etc.

Not sure if that helps - but a couple of experiences that I have found helpful
when confronted with resistance to designing accessible multimedia from
well-meaning academics who can't see the reason for accessibility in their
particular contexts.

Best wishes

Denise Wood



-----Original Message-----
From: * EASI: Equal Access to Software & Information
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Betty Nobel
Sent: Wednesday, 23 June 2004 4:55 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Fw: Fw: Announcement: article on online accessibility inthe
Chronicle of Higher Educa



This response is from someone who is very involved in on-line learning
at our college.  Does anyone have a suggestion as to how I can respond
to this in a meaningful way that will help this instructor learn about
the value of accessibility?  Please do not respond to him yourselves.  I
just want some idea of how I might approach this.

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